Paul Gascoigne has warned Jack Grealish he 'needs to knuckle down' to make the best of his playing days after he was left out of the England squad for Euro 2024.
Manchester City bought Grealish from Aston Villa for £100m in 2021 but he has not had the same impact on Pep Guardiola's side as the impressively commanding role he enjoyed at his boyhood club.
That led Gareth Southgate to omit Grealish from this summer's trip to Germany, preferring Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen and Eberechi Eze as his options on the wing.
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After being left out, Grealish reportedly went away to Dubai on holiday, which Gascoigne has no issue with: he knows what it's like to be unexpectedly dropped ahead of a major tournament for England, after all, having been infamously left out of Glenn Hoddle's 1998 World Cup squad.
But Gascoigne has nudged 28-year-old Grealish to make sure his main focus remains on the pitch to make sure he makes the most of his remaining playing career.
Gascoigne told Techopedia:" Obviously it's pre-season, I think he spent 50 grand on a night out in Dubai when he didn’t make the England squad. Good on him. He’s got that money.
"He's got quality, but he needs to knuckle down. I was the same. When I had a few days off, I’d go and celebrate. You had a drink and that.
"Sometimes I wish I hadn't, I regretted it, but I still managed to perform. If you can perform on a Saturday then fair enough, the manager is not going to have a go at you.”
Gascoigne earned 57 caps between 1988 and 1998, while Grealish has appeared 36 times for England since 2020 having represented the Republic of Ireland at youth level.
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